


A Strategy Meeting

by Ruusverd



Series: Echoes of the Fall AU [17]
Category: Echoes of the Fall - Adrian Tchaikovsky, Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Bronze Age AU, Gen, hooray I can finally just tag the whole hansa, shapeshifter AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26010331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruusverd/pseuds/Ruusverd
Summary: The warband meets to discuss strategy and everyone briefly loses their minds. Regis and Yennefer are both 100% done with these idiots. (Not really, they love them. But they're still idiots.)
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg
Series: Echoes of the Fall AU [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863010
Comments: 5
Kudos: 12





	A Strategy Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting these in chronological order but I didn't *write* them in order, so I ended up rewriting half of this one this morning when I read over it and realized it didn't match what came before or after it anymore. Any disjointedness is thus probably due to last minute rewrites. This is why you shouldn't write a series out of order, kids.
> 
> Someday, hopefully before the series is finished, I am actually going to go through and number my files so that every morning I don't find myself staring at a folder full of document files trying to remember which one comes next and which version of it was the "finished" one.

The night before the Horse party was set to arrive at the trading post in the Many Mouths territory, Geralt and Yennefer called the warband together so they could explain their plan to go to the abandoned place of the Elder Sea tribe. As everyone gathered in a loose circle Yennefer started to speak, but was interrupted by Geralt ordering Cahir away.

Yennefer frowned at Geralt as he fixed Cahir with a stern look. “This is the end of my tolerance, river man. Up until now I could let you follow us because I had no choice and no plan. Now we have a firm destination, and I can’t risk you running back to your masters in the south and telling them where we’ve gone.”

Cahir bristled. “I am getting very tired of your suspicions, Wolf.”

“Why shouldn’t I be suspicious? You’re one of the Kasra’s soldiers. You told me yourself you couldn’t go home without taking Ciri with you, that you would be killed unless you brought her to the Sun River Nation alive.”

Cahir pointed at Yennefer indignantly, “I’m one of the Kasra’s soldiers so I must be a traitor, what about _her?_ She’s one of the Kasra’s _advisors!_ The Kasra speaks no word that doesn’t come from a Serpent’s mouth and all the river knows it!”

Yennefer snorted at the idea that she had any influence over Emhyr's madness, but Geralt started shouting before she had a chance to speak. Apparently he didn't mind if the Horse Society heard him. “Don’t bring Yennefer into this! She’s proved her loyalties beyond question, it’s _you_ _r_ loyalties I have my doubts about!”

“If Cahir intended to betray you he would have done so the moment you reached the river,” Regis interjected. “Up to that point he could have told his superiors he was pretending to join you in order to make the girl easier to control. The moment he turned north up the river instead of south to Atahlan that excuse no longer held.”

“That’s not enough,” Geralt insisted. “No one else here has reason to betray us, no one but the Crocodile’s own cousin. How do I know the Dragon attack wasn’t your work? No one has ever seen Dragons this far north, how do I know you didn’t meet with some river spy and send word south for them to ambush us?”

“I did not betray you,” Cahir shouted back, “I can’t prove it, but I did not follow you all this way for you to call me a traitor!”

“You _are_ a traitor! You are a soldier of the Kasra, yet you claim to be helping us; that means you must be betraying _someone,_ I just don’t know if it’s us or the Kasra!”

Cahir growled and dove at Geralt, knocking him backwards off of the rock he’d been sitting on. They rolled around, alternately punching with human fists and Stepping to snap at each other with animal jaws. Neither had a distinct advantage. Geralt was slowed by his healing leg, but he had more experience and his Stepped shape was far more agile and suited to unarmed brawling than Cahir’s.

Yennefer stood up impatiently. “Geralt, stop it! You’re going to make your leg worse! Stop it, both of you!” She knew they weren’t actually trying to kill each other, or they’d have drawn their weapons instead of pummeling each other with fists. They'd simply let the issue fester between them for too long, until it finally boiled over.

Milva Stepped with a hawk’s angry screech, diving on the combatants with her sharp talons, trying to drive them apart.

“Stop it, you’re hurting Geralt!” Ciri shouted, scooping rocks off the ground and hurling one at the hawk with all her strength. She paused, clearly wanting to throw one at Cahir but afraid she’d hit Geralt by mistake. Yennefer grabbed her arm and hauled her back just in time to stop her from jumping on Cahir with her little bronze knife. Yennefer got the knife away from her, but the girl used some strange wrestling technique she’d learned from Lem to slip out of her hold, running out of Yennefer’s reach and flinging another rock at Milva’s swooping form. Fortunately her aim was poor and none of her projectiles hit their fast-moving target.

Dandelion Stepped and flapped uselessly around in circles, cawing in alarm and generally getting in everyone’s way. Yennefer thought sourly that he would probably end up being hit by one of Ciri’s rocks and breaking a wing.

Lem watched the unfolding chaos from the sidelines with an expression of absolute delight. She cheered all of them on equally, laughing and clapping every time someone managed to land a particularly impressive blow, no matter who it landed on.

Yennefer gave up and sat back down with an annoyed huff, covering her face with one hand. _What loop of your Coils brought me here? s_ he asked the Serpent in exasperated despair. _How did I fail you,_ _that you punish me_ _with this sort of idiocy_ _?_

A wave of vibration that rattled her teeth suddenly struck her, and she jerked her head up in alarm. Yennefer saw Regis aiming his soundless scream in the direction of the fighting. The others all fell to the ground, shocked back into their human forms and clutching at their heads with pained shouts. Slowly the not-sound died away.

“That will be quite enough of _that,”_ Regis said tartly, ignoring the moans of the temporarily incapacitated warband. “Now all of you get up and start acting like adults.”

“But I’m not an adult!” Ciri wailed, clutching her ears.

“Me neither, and I wasn’t even fighting!” Lem protested, thumping the side of her head with one fist as if trying to knock the headache into falling out of her ear.

“Then both of you sit down and be quiet.” Regis turned away from them to reassure the Horse people who had gathered to stare that there had been a minor difference of opinion but everything was settled now.

Yennefer rolled her eyes and went to tug Geralt up from the ground and help him limp back to the rock he’d been sitting on. “I hope you’re happy now,” she tutted over his new injuries. His armor had blocked the worst of it, but his face and neck were going to have some livid bruises from Cahir’s fists in a day or two and his forearms had some sluggishly bleeding scratches from Milva’s talons. “Did you reopen your leg in your silly brawl?” she asked.

“No,” Geralt grumbled, looking vaguely embarrassed yet unrepentant.

“Are you sure?”

“Do you want me to take off my leggings right here and prove it?” he groused, then looked at her apologetically. “I’m sure, it’s fine. I’d feel it if it was bleeding.”

“Good,” Yennefer sat on the rock next to him and linked her arm through his. Hopefully that would stop him from jumping at Cahir, and fear of hitting her, a priestess, would stop Cahir from attacking Geralt. Ciri sat herself on Geralt's good knee, which Yennefer suspected would be a far stronger deterrent for the two men.

For the moment Cahir seemed pacified, sitting on a rock of his own and poking at what would probably be a spectacular black eye. Geralt radiated satisfaction at the sight, which made Yennefer roll her eyes in fond annoyance and tuck herself against his side more firmly.

Milva sat next to Cahir, rubbing her arm and glaring at Regis. She had landed on top of the river man when she’d been jolted back to her human form and fallen from the sky, which had softened her landing but hadn’t done Cahir any good.

Dandelion was still laying sprawled on the ground where he’d fallen, bewailing his impending death while Lem poked at him, grinning. He’d only fallen a few feet when he’d unexpectedly lost his wings, so Yennefer assumed he was exaggerating.

Yennefer waited for Regis to return from shooing the curious Horse people away, then crossed one leg over the other and glared at the warband sternly. “If you’ve all finished making a fine spectacle of yourselves, maybe we can discuss things in a civilized fashion.”

Dandelion gave up his moaning and stumbled back over to them, trailed by the still-grinning Lem. Either the main force of Regis’ scream had missed her and she’d been faking earlier, or she was still capable of being disproportionately amused while nursing a splitting headache. Yennefer couldn’t decide which she thought was more likely.

Once everyone was settled, Yennefer briefly outlined their plan to go to Elder Sea and attempt to cleanse the village. Regis confirmed that he would be able to help Yen with removing any curse that might be on the area, as well as releasing the ghosts that reportedly persisted despite the bodies being long burned.

“We should split up before we reach the trading post, and regroup later farther on,” Dandelion suggested. “Everyone in the territory will be sending traders to try and get first choice of what the Horse Society is bringing in, we’ll draw too much attention arriving together.”

“I would prefer to avoid meeting anyone from the Eyrie if possible,” Milva agreed, "And Regis would surely draw many stares."

“There’s a tributary that joins the river not far north of here before we reach the Many Mouths,” Geralt said, “Jaskier, Milva, and Regis can fly, they could go upstream tonight while it's dark and meet us there. Cahir could leave tomorrow and swim up the tributary when we pass it, I think it’s deep enough for him to swim for a fairly long distance.”

“Me and Ciri can pretend to be Horse when we get there and take Plotka away from the trading post with us,” Lem added.

“I’ll say I’m coming north on ‘priest business,’ no one ever questions that. Geralt can be the northerner I hired as a guide. That takes care of all of us,” Yennefer concluded with satisfaction.

Geralt’s expression went pinched. “Being a priestess of the Snake won’t mean anything in the Crown of the World, or at least not much. The north doesn’t care much about outsiders, even outside gods.” Dandelion and Milva, who were also from the north, nodded in agreement.

“If they don’t care they won’t ask questions, that’s the important thing,” Yennefer countered, “And a priest is a priest, that carries respect even if they don’t care about the Serpent.” She knew her caste wasn’t as revered outside the nation they’d built along the Tsotec, but she couldn’t imagine a place where her covered head and the bright scales painted across her forehead and cheeks meant _nothing._

The northerners continued to look dubious but agreed no one was likely to be too curious about a wandering foreign priest as long as she didn't do anything to draw attention to herself.

When their plans were finalized, the three winged members of the warband Stepped and flew off into the night, and the rest of them returned to the Horse camp to sleep. The Horse people eyed them curiously but didn’t ask any questions. The tension between Geralt and Cahir seemed to have mostly dissolved now that they’d had a chance to fight it out, but some of the younger members of the trading party looked like they were hoping for more entertainment.

Geralt fell asleep almost immediately as he generally did, content to have Ciri tucked securely between himself and Yennefer. Yennefer stayed awake for quite some time, distracted by her thoughts. The landscape around them had been shifting for days, but tomorrow they would officially reach the north, called the Crown of the World by its inhabitants, and the last leg of their journey would begin.

**Author's Note:**

> I wish I knew how to describe the exact expression that real horses make when the humans are doing something that they find incomprehensibly stupid but highly entertaining, because that's the expression I'm picturing the Horse Society making when their guests unexpectedly start a brawl.
> 
> The part that comes next chronologically is about 70% finished because yesterday my brain would only focus on stuff that comes later, but hopefully I'll have it done by tomorrow. The whole rest of the plot is at least half-written, so I (think I) know where it's headed.


End file.
